1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management apparatus and a management method for executing device resource conflict avoidance processing. More specifically, detection performed, when different settings are performed for a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a conventional system including a plurality of devices, such as copying machines and printers, which are integrally managed. In this system, a device management apparatus has a basic device management function, according to which necessary functions can be later added. Each additional function can be installed as a plugin on the management apparatus, so that new functions can be used without requiring any change of the original system.
However, new functions provided by the additionally installed plugin may conflict with existing functions.
For example, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-190467, a “bookbinding print” function (a function provided by an additional plugin) is added to a printer driver. It is now assumed that, when a user instructs a print, the user sets a “group” print as an existing function of the printer driver and sets the “bookbinding print” function as a function of the additional plugin. The above-described functions set by the user cannot be simultaneously executed by a printer. Therefore, the system discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-190467 performs control for avoiding any conflict between the setting items.
As a function capable of limiting the usage of a device, conventional device management systems can manage the upper-limit number of sheets usable for printing or can perform an accounting management using the upper-limit amount of money based on the number of sheets used for printing and print settings.
For example, an example case where these functions are simultaneously installed as plugins on the management apparatus of the system is described below.
A system stores a device resource “number of remaining printable sheets” for each user, as a device resource to be used in a print management. The system refuses a print instruction requested by a user who uses the print function at the time when the “number of remaining printable sheets” becomes “0.”
For example, a plugin A capable of controlling the print by a user based on the upper-limit number of sheets sets the upper-limit number of sheets for the user to 100. A plugin B capable of controlling the print by a user based on the print fee sets the upper-limit amount of money for the use to 1000 yen and sets the amount of money per sheet to 1 yen.
In this case, according to the function of the plugin A, the above-described device resource “number of remaining printable sheets” is set to “100” and stored.
On the other hand, according to the function of the plugin B, the number of printable sheets by the user can be calculated as 1000 (=(upper-limit amount of money)÷(amount of money/per sheet)) referring to the setting amount of money and the amount of money per sheet. The above-described device resource “number of remaining printable sheets” is set to “1000.”
If execution according to the setting by the plugin A is earlier than execution according to the setting by the plugin B, the device resource “number of remaining printable sheets” is once set to “100” and is later overwritten to “1000” as a finalized value. In this case, the number of sheets actually used for printing is “1000”, nevertheless the upper-limit number of sheets set by the plugin A is “100.”
As described above, when the “number of printing sheets” setting and the “amount of money” setting (i.e., different setting items of two plugin functions) are related to the same device resource, users cannot accurately perform the settings as intended.